The Moment of Choice

People often ask how Nirarta was started. I took the first step to create
Nirarta in January 1995, when I stood on the present site – then a grove of
clove trees – and realized that this place, with its upland stream, surrounded
by green hills, between sea and mountain, was exactly what I had been seeking.

This was my moment of choice. I could stick with familiar work and territory
in Europe. Or I could risk buying land in a far-off place, and create a centre
for people to connect with the core of their life.

I knew at once that, to be true to myself, I had no choice. I plunged in and
began a project that is still unfolding.

The informal opening of Nirarta in January 1999 was thus the realization of
a personal dream. I feel it is something I have been intimately involved in
creating as a personal expression of who I am and something I have received,
like a gift or ‘task’ from the spirit of life itself.

Background

I am of mixed Italian, Polish, and English descent. I grew up in East
Anglia, England, where I was educated by the Christian Brothers, who stimulated
my asking questions about life.

I read Modern Languages (French and Italian)
at Liverpool University, where I began a life-long interest in meditation
and higher states of consciousness.

My MA dissertation at the University
of East Anglia in Comparative Literature focused on the use of mirror imagery
to reflect states of awareness in poetry.

After three years in an ‘ashram’ in
the Magic Mountains of Switzerland, I earned a PhD for research into the
role of experiences of heightened consciousness in literary creativity.

Professional Development

Originally trained by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, I have been a meditation
teacher since the early 70s.

A former member of Tony Buzan's Learning Methods
Group, I have always been deeply interested in the learning process.

I
have also trained in Person Centred Expressive Therapy in California with
Natalie Rogers, and spontaneous movement with Gabrielle Roth and others.

NLP

I am a certified Trainer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), having
worked in this field since the early 80s. I have been active teaching it
at an advanced level internationally.

The Influence of Bali

Many influences (including Balinese philosophy and practice) have come
together in my more recent work with Jan Ardui to develop the philosophy and approach
underpinning Nirarta, ‘The Way of Unfolding’.

Fruition

I spend most of my year at Nirarta among the flowers and butterflies
with my wife, Dayu, and two girls Maya and Mira, hanging out, as it is
easy to do in Bali, with family, friends, staff, and guests, writing, researching,
and teaching. For about three months a year, I travel and give seminars
internationally.

Living Awareness

At Nirarta, we treat Self-knowledge, not as some distant and
ever receding goal, but our immediate birthright, here and now.

Together, we explore ways of coming home directly to this creative
source, so that we can enjoy peace and freedom within, while acting with
clarity, delight, and dynamism. This is Living Awareness – Awareness
that is both alive and lived, here and now.

Way of Unfolding

Things become what they are through the natural evolutionary
process we term 'Unfolding'

Sensitivity to pattern and growing alignment with
the deeper pattern of our lives help our personal unfolding to resonate with
the process or 'Way of Unfolding' in life as a whole.

When this happens, we enjoy and support fullness in life, both
in ourselves and in others. We flow with the stream of life, and are able
to accomplish much with minimum striving. Life supports us as we support
life.

Transformational Coaching

The Transformational Coach proceeds with a lot of sensitivity to the unfolding pattern of the client's life, helping him or her

identify and make simple internal changes,

deepen learning and understanding,

grow and develop as a whole person.

Awareness Meditation

Awareness is the source and ground of all our
thinking, feeling, and perceiving. It is the basis of our learning and knowing,
and hence the key to effectiveness in action.

The purpose of meditation is to allow mental activity to settle
into that simple and subtle Awareness which reflects all our experience.
At first this Awareness is glimpsed fleetingly, revealing itself eventually
as our true nature and Source of all that is.

Awareness Meditation involves gentle, innocent
settling into our own being, without effort or attempts to stop thinking
and ‘concentrate’.

Peter is a meditation guide with close to 40 years of experience
practising and teaching meditation.

Re•Patterning

In Re•Patterning we explore the patterns
of thought, feeling, and behaviour recurring in our lives, until core patterns
and assumptions about ourselves or our world emerge.

This process helps identify where our deep beliefs about self
and world are interfering with our general well-being and ability to function
harmoniously and successfully in daily life.

Through Re•Patterning, we can revise these unhelpful patterns
and assumptions, so as to bring them into harmony with our inner being. This
supports the natural process of unfolding in our lives.

Seminars

In Seminars at Nirarta, small groups come together to support change, learning, and growth, in themselves and each other.

Generally, a short presentation by the facilitator is followed by an activity for pairs, trios, or the individual to seed experience.

Shared reflection in pairs, trios, and in the group as a whole helps deepen and integrate the change, learning, and growth that emerges.

While there is a conceptual component to our seminars, the emphasis is primarily on lived and shared experience, so that learning is embodied in the person as a whole.

Retreats

Since earliest times, people have taken time alone in silent vigils and
retreats to places of power, beauty, and silence, often in remote caves,
shrines, and hermitages in mountain, forest, and desert.

Retreats, in short, are an ideal way to unleash the power of deep transformation,
accelerate inner awakening, and ease our path of unfolding.

Nirarta

Nirartais named after Danghyang
Nirarta, a great 16th century sage, who did much to shape Balinese Hinduism.
Teaching and founding temples on his many wanderings, he blended Shaivist
tradition with the Buddhist heritage received from his father, earning the
title of ‘Dwijendra’ or ‘Two
Paths’.

His name ‘Nirarta’ means literally ‘Wealth in that which
is not’. His name points to the knowledge that springs from the simplicity
of Unknowing, the abundance abiding in the silent source life itself.

The Nirarta Centre, too, brings two paths together. It aims to provide a bridge
between the knowledge and insights of the West and the deep wisdom woven into
the colourful fabric of Bali.